EGWolfe

Be the magician. Your team needs you. Don't settle.

Posted on September 19th, 2013

I took these notes this morning at #storychicago:

The designer is the only magician on the team. Other people will build, market, etc.
I need to do what only I can do.
AND: I must push for what I intuitively know will work. Regardless of the opposition to my idea - from bosses, producers, etc. - if I know it will make the difference in communicating better, I need to keep pushing until my concept is tried.
Don't settle. No one ever got in trouble for over delivering.

Production Design - not a fan.

Posted on September 8th, 2013


Kensington is doing a 4-week series based off the book Not a Fan. The Communications Department has gone with the same branding as the book. Simple white text on black.

We decided to play off the same design by creating a 32' wide black rectangle with cut-out letters. We're using the same typeface as the program and lobby graphics. The fun thing I'm doing with it is having the letters glow with saturation - and motion texture as we're using projectors to light the letters. Add some lights and we have a design. Simple is good, usually. It'll be great for the walk-in and even during communication moments. I'm concerned about the sensitivity of a closing song. The other departments think it'll be fine. Perhaps I'm just a bit cautious of sabotaging such a moment. We'll see I guess.

Ingredients:

*Oh, and you should ask me about the idea we almost went with. It might have been a bit cliché, but I know our teachers would have loved it. A bit too much to try and do with our timeline (I was scheduled for vacation and we're in the middle of Christmas prep) so I've back-pocketed yet another design. I think it would've been pretty amazing...

Quote - on debt and creativity

Posted on September 7th, 2013

"The trick is from the business side, to try to be fiscally responsible so you can be creatively reckless."


I like this reminder. It goes along with my tagline:
achieving the greatest intersection of stewardship and creativity

Status Update

Posted on September 1st, 2013

This past week has been great to be with my family. I'm bummed to have not gotten to experience Glacier National Park, but I'll get to at some point, I suppose… I love my boys and their mother more than I enjoy the backcountry. It was the right choice this week.

Anyway, I'm getting caught up on some freelance stuff tonight. Also, as you might have seen on Twitter, I've been working hard on our branding the past couple days. Stay tuned!

Prepping for vacation

Posted on August 23rd, 2013

So today was scheduled to be my last day of work before leaving for a backpacking trip to Glacier National Park. If you've been following Jessica's blog (http://choosinglovenotfear.tumblr.com/) you know that I'm now going to be on a "staycation" with my family instead…

Regardless of staying home or being away, once I get these last diagrams* finished and posted, I'm turning my KCC email off.

*These are the diagrams left to finish. Mostly, I need to put in the turn notes so it shouldn't take me too long. I'll be striking them through as I finish them so if you're really bored, you can keep this post open in your browser and refresh every so often to track my progress. (Though, if you're that bored, let me know and I'll delegate some things to you.)
  • 130828 midweek stage *DONE
  • 130831&0901 weekend stage *DONE
  • 130904 midweek stage *DONE
  • 130907&08 weekend stage ("not a fan." wk1) *DONE
  • construction diagram for "not a fan." assembly *DONE
  • email to portable campus with my sketch suggesting how they might accomplish it *DONE
Update, you may have noticed that I haven't checked things off yet. I keep adding/doing other things (emails I should send and such) to my list instead of finishing these diagrams. Some odd version of writers block I guess. Soon enough, I'll check the above off. Jessica, in the meantime has opened her computer and turned on The West Wing. Nothing like some good inspiration for creatively getting things done.

Ok, apparently "strike-thru" longer works on my site. I suspect because I switched to using Markdown to allow me to imbed videos. Hmm. I guess I'm going to have to learn how to use Markdown…or I could just give the link to my YouTube page, I guess. Anyway, for now I'm going to keep checking things off. Let's try adding "*DONE" to the end of each line finished in addition to the strike thru I have here in Evernote.

Getting posts republished to my site

Posted on August 12th, 2013

  • Can anything new be added?
  • Apparently yes.
  • Can I erase the tag "published" and then re-add and get a post to reappear to my site?
  • Also, yes…well, sort of… I successfully re-added my post from yesterday about The Program; but I have not successfully re-added the Coroplast Cubes post with the imbedded video (that was successfully working for 45min yesterday before everything went down…
  • I wonder if this post even updates?
  • It does. Still nothing on the Cubes post…
  • Let me try with another? I'll try with one of my Pages, too.
  • Nothing. Hmm…
  • Let me try removing "published" - then syncing Evernote - then re-tagging "published" - then syncing Evernote again?
  • Success - it appears this is the magic variable!!
  • Here's to the tedious process of removing tags - syncing - and re-tagging...

The Program We're Working Through With Our Boys

Posted on August 11th, 2013

So the program we're doing with our boys (*see below) forces me to get caught up on computer work at night. Tonight, I'm getting caught up on emails and updating designs. I have a couple additional Christmas design concepts that I need to take from sketch to diagram by Monday. Therefore, I'm up late. I've kind of hit a wall.

I took a break & read my wife's latest post. She's been blogging daily since we started this program - http://choosinglovenotfear.tumblr.com/ - here writing here is just one more point on the long list of things I think are amazing about her.

Anyway, I thought I'd copy/paste part of one of her posts earlier in the week that explains what "the program" that we've been doing is:

I realize some of you might not know what "the program" is, so here’s a crash course:
  • The program is 3 levels, with level one being first and toughest. It is one or both parents with the child at all times. And the child is never more than 3 feet away from you. It involves a strict schedule (eat every two hours, emotional/cognitive activities, physical activities, house work, bonding activities, and goals for each child).
  • Everything has to be visual and verbal. Hence, there are huge posterboards and a white board taking over one wall of our house, with goals, mantras, the schedule, unacceptable behaviors, and unhealthy/healthy words to say.
  • There are no electronics (and I do mean none). We don’t do anything besides answer phone calls until after the boys go to bed (which is why you won’t see a blog post before 9pm).
  • The program is parents only. The boys cannot play with friends and really cannot interact with other adults. Thus we’ve said "see you later" to everyone we know for a time. It’s like we’re in Europe for the month (except not really; not at all).
  • If the child will not participate in an activity, then you have them sit in "time in" with you. This is the opposite of the more well known "time out." Time outs are terrible for traumatized kids because it isolates them. Time in keeps them contained, safe, and in proximity to people.
  • The suggested time frame for level one is 45-60 days. We are seeing what we can accomplish in 30. We’ll see.

Translucent Coroplast Cubes

Posted on August 10th, 2013

So I wanted to share a blog about our new design. I was alone in the auditorium, and on a whim I decided to point my phone at myself and take you on a video tour of this weekend's design.

Please excuse my stutter and the not-broadcast-legal colors. Hopefully my off-the-cuff content makes sense and the camera shots are somewhat helpful. Ask me questions about anything I wasn't clear on.


Please also give me feedback:
  • Should I do this again?
  • I know I should definitely light it differently - if I had known that I would have the thought of shooting video, I would've adjusted the lighting…
  • I'll also want to use the good camera on the back of the phone instead of the front facing camera. Biggest benefit is that I'll actually know what the shot composition is when I'm doing my walk and talk...
  • Do I change the format? This was obviously an unscripted single take with no edits. I suppose I could put some forethought into it (as I am a veteran video producer) perhaps shooting a standup, then voicing over an edited tour of properly composed shots…
  • I didn't share any typed details about the design in this post. Should I?

The Key to Good Decision Making

Posted on August 6th, 2013

"The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter."
-Malcolm Gladwell

Understand what variables need to be solved in the equation. Ignore all the rest and simply make the snap decision. Ideally the decision would be one that comes intuitively - likely because of time invested in similar situations - where the necessary variables have already been solved on a subconscious level.

Regardless, I'm really working on this thought. May I not fall prey to my OCD nature of trying to have every path of the maze accounted for. Instead, I want to trust my natural talents and the investment of life experiences that I've built up.

I know I do this well in a live production environment. I almost always seem to make the right call - either during set-up of a stage or mid-show leading the team through a last minute audible that.

I hope I can continue to get better about this in the rest of my life.

Value Add

Posted on August 2nd, 2013

Scanning an old journal, I came across this bit of encouragement to be who I’m uniquely created to be. My value-add is that, "I bring an unseen potential of ideation to the creative process and I have a unique ability to maximize the product by manipulating resources in a strategic manner."

My encouragement to you who might be reading this: Sped time reflecting on what you enjoy doing. Consider what things you do well either naturally and/or because you have such practice that it has become second nature; and ideally both. I also suggest taking the StrengthsFinder2.0 indicator. I originally penned this journal entry shortly after learning my strength themes - Ideation, Maximizer, Strategic are my top 3. If you can apply your potential in situations where it can be a gift to others, you will be value-add.

Here's to continued growth as a steward of my strengths and opportunities.
Eric G Wolfe

Creative Director | Process Architect. Design Strategist. Leadership Coach.